When the Old Wise Mother of the King sent the Queen/Handless Maiden off into the woods to escape death, she had instead sacrificed a doe, and kept the eyes and tongue as proof, to show her son, the King, when he returned.  

The Handless Maiden and her child stayed with the woodspeople for 7 years at the Inn, and she had a very happy life.  Gradually, her hands grew back.  First, as little baby hands, and then as child hands, and finally, as full grown woman hands.  

When the King returned from battle, his mother cried and demanded to know why he would have two innocents killed, and showed him the eyes and the tongue of the doe.

The King was so upset, he began to cry and despair.  He told his mother he had not ordered that, and relieved, she told him that these were the eyes and tongue of a doe, and that his wife and child had wandered off into the woods.

He vowed to venture into the woods, alone, without food or drink, until he finds them.  So off he went, into the woods, where he wandered for 7 years, without eating or drinking, but was somehow sustained through a force greater than himself.